Unpacking

Last week, I was pictured and quoted by Alex Vadukul for the New York Times, in a story on that meetup I mentioned here. Yesterday, I went to Emily Sundberg’s Feed Me merch sale/focaccia sandwich pop-up/anniversary party at Rhodora and the first thing I noticed was a hardcover of Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter on a table. That wasn’t the tone for the rest of the afternoon, though. Emily’s strength is knowing interesting people and getting them interested in each other. How else would I hear about a new spray-on vinegar made from vintage wine?

I suppose, now that I have some new subscribers, I should add that I have published a few books—Surveys, Sleeveless, and Artless—as well as a booklet on Cookie Mueller’s work—Doctor Strange Love—and contributions in artist books by Vanessa Place, DIS, Amalia Ulman, Raúl de Nieves, Ana Viktoria Dzinic, and Sam McKinnis.

Anonymously, I’ve written thousands of press releases, including one for a high-end sex toy company last year (I’ve also written for a book sponsored by another sex toy company and a magazine funded by a sex app). I consult for brands and sometimes write their ad copy, including an OOH campaign tagline that was everywhere. I named a popular sneaker. Magazines with my work/portrait on stands currently are Buffalo Zine, System Beauty, Novembre, Highsnobiety, Holiday, ALL-IN, Self Service, and the LARB Quarterly. Maybe there are others. Does anyone buy magazines? Here is a little preview of my interview with Anna Delvey for Buffalo.

I don’t have a tagline for this newsletter, but others have told me it’s “missives.” Everything, in a way, is advice, if only it is an example by which you are free to follow. Like, when you have an errand to run during the day in NoLIta, be sure to make other plans, or you will use the excuse of being out to shop for overpriced soaps at stores that offer a cup of hot tea in November. After a fitting at a designer’s showroom and lunch at ThisBowl (the braised beef is the most expensive but it is the best), I’ll be on a call, but walking either way, so we can use that time to return keys to an artist’s studio in TriBeCa.

Once we part, I’ll get spotted by Quentin Belt and his film crew and end up on his (funny) 93 Canal live show, Qringe. At an early Lucien dinner, a friend and I will see everyone we know and their dad in town from France. The owner will remind us that O’Flaherty’s is now at 165 Allen (temporarily). An older couple will offer us the rest of their wine because they can’t finish a bottle, but as it turns out, we have been over-served as well. We will see that same couple, each wearing a smart hat, at the opening, which is crowded but manageable. Yes, the show really is a collaborative work by Matthew Barney and Alex Katz, called The Bitch. “How did you do it?” I ask gallerist Jamian Juliano-Villani, who is doing her typical flitting, but without her typical glass of whiskey, neat, and lit cigarette indoors (her mother, in all white, is here).